I wish I could write on a piece of paper from
the thoughts that's in my head when I walk laps around this
building. The thoughts come real good about that top corner up
there. If I go clockwise, I pray this morning that the word the
Lord gives will absolutely infuriate those that hate him. Those that
despise him. Those that can't stand him. They
can't stand his gospel. They can't stand his sovereignty.
They can't stand his righteousness that he gives his people. His
power and all things. I hope it makes them so mad they
can't stand it. And I hope that exact same word
calls out one of his elect that's never heard him. And boy, I pray
it's the last one. This wicked world full of pain
and sorrows over, we can go home. And if it ain't, I'll rejoice.
I'll be thankful that his word did that. And that those that
he's already called, those that just had all their
hope ripped from them, heart shattered, broken, contrite,
that he's healed. He's given confidence to his
confidence, his faith. Confidence in Him, the object
of our faith. And we're so quick to forget
Him. So quick to forget Him. I hope
He comforts that child. All three of those can happen
if He sees fit. I can't do that. If I was that smart, I'd probably
be making money doing something else. I don't know. I don't have
that ability, but He does. His Word does. There's many different
people that the Lord saves. You need to get that through
your head, and I need to get that through my head. We need
to get a hold of that. The Lord saves a lot of different
people. He saves some of them hooty-tooty,
highfalutin' religionists, and I don't want to call them Pharisees
today. Nicodemus wasn't a Pharisee. He's a theologian. That's our
modern-day word, isn't it? He's a theologian. God saved
him. And God saved a whole world by
a will. She went under the guise, the
ruse of marrying over and over and over. Maybe they died, maybe
they left her, I don't know, but she kept doing it. She was
living with one to one her husband. He saved both of them. What we
read this morning, there was those that blindfolded him, took
turns slapping him in the face and said, now you're a prophet,
you tell us which one just smacked you. That makes my blood boil. If I could get a hold of them,
I'd take off more in their ear. It may have been one of those
that the Lord saved. Peter stood up on his high legs to the very
ones he watched kill Christ and said, you killed him and he's
God. Think Peter was worried about
them killing him? Now if the Lord's with him, he did. Some
of those the Lord saved that day when Peter preached to them.
The very ones that did that. I'd say sinners. We think we're
somewhat just magically different. I'm just learned and holy, and
I don't do this, and I don't cuss, and I don't think bad thoughts,
and every now and then I sin a little bit. Hogwash! Go out
in your garbage can after Thanksgiving dinner, find that turkey down
in the bottom, and you see a bunch of maggots crawling all over
it in the noonday sun. And you say, one of those maggots
are telling the other maggot, now you stop and you listen to
me. I'm in charge. We'd laugh, squish them, throw
some bleach on them, get rid of them. If we're worms, if we're maggots,
we ain't no different than anybody else, but thanks be to God, He
come to save sinners. He come to be made a worm that
I am. What a thought that is. And His loving kindness to an
undeserving people, that's absolutely amazing. That amazes me. His long suffering to a rebellious
bride. That inspires all. That's awesome. That's something to marvel at. The amount of His mercy, the
bounty of His mercy that He delights to show. It's unimaginable. There are some things that are
in common to all who are saved. That always perked my interest.
I've told you that before. Now, all believers do this. That's
how I get you them headlines nowadays, isn't it? If you want
to save on your money, do this, and I'll get you a click on it.
That always got me. What's common between all believers?
Am I a believer? Have I experienced this? That's
what I ask myself. But how the Lord, there's some
things common between all believers, but how the Lord deals with His
sheep, it is absolutely individual. And that's something we need
to take note of. Not how He deals with each one, but that it's
individual. It's like a thumb print. We're
every one different. Every one of us are different. We may be
from the same country, the same state, may have the same culture
growing up, may not. But we're all different people.
We have different thoughts, different minds. The Lord gave us mind
to think. And every one of us think our mind's the right one.
We need to do it my way. I do. If everybody just do it
my way, the world would be a lot better place, wouldn't it? If
everybody be like me, we'd be miserable. We'd be tearing each
other's heads off. The thing that's common to all those that
the Lord saves is they're all sinners in need. They don't know
it. They may have some guilt, you
know. But it ain't conviction of sin,
what they are. They know, they'll be brought
to know that. They may not know that yet, but the Lord's going
to fix some of that. But that's the true need. They're sinners.
They've offended the holy God. And every one of them are steeped
in pride and self-righteousness. Every one. That real highfalutin
Nicodemus and that woman that hid herself In the noonday sun,
when nobody else was out, it wouldn't talk to nobody. That's
why you bother me. Leave me alone. I'm here to get
water. She's proud. Is she self-righteous? Yes, she
is. Both maggots, ain't they? There's four nuns in Romans. There's none righteous, no, not
one. Ain't no righteousness in his
flesh. There's none that understandeth. Boy, now we're starting to build
a little bit of fire underneath that, ain't we? You don't understand. I don't understand. I just ain't
that smart. I didn't figure this out on my
own. He's starting to agree a little bit. There's none that seeketh
after God. Now, I get up early every Sunday
morning. I ain't missed church service
in 87 years. I seek Him. What's God say? There's none that doeth good.
Well, not Graham. No. Not one. Not one. That's what we are. Christ saves
each one of His children. He comes to these poor, vile,
wretched, prideful, self-righteous worms, maggots, and He saves
them. He does the work. He comes to
His child. He calls them by name. And He
may bring them to Him through providence. That's the way we
see it. That's the only way we can choose that. He might bring them
to where He is, or He comes to where they are. He brought Nicodemus
through His holy high command. Every molecule moved on this
earth throughout time brought Nicodemus right to His feet that
night. And then, there was some fishermen out there. Men in nets
crosswalked by and said, Hey! Follow me. Dropped in nets. That's their
life. That's their livelihood. Well, what? Now hold on now.
Maybe I'll pack him up real tight in a backpack and take him with
you. You may need to do some fishing on the other side of town. They
dropped their nets and they followed him. Because they had a need. In two words, the Lord revealed
that need to his children, his apostles. The Savior is always
the same. The need is always the same.
And the results. Though the proportions are different,
though the way the Lord's providence is used to call out His children,
though what they look like on the outside may be different,
the results, the end state, is always the same. The needs are
the same, the Savior is the same, and the outcome is always the
same. It says in verse 28, John 4, 28, The woman then left her
waterpot and went her way into the city and saith to the men, I see a man which told me all
things that I ever did. Is this not the Christ? And they
went out to the city and came to Him. The Lord was using her
as means. Come to church with me. That's
what she's saying. There's Christ. There's a man out here speaking
to himself. Come hear Him. Come hear Him. That's a mighty work
of God that just took place. She left her water pot and she told
what God did for her. She left her water pot. Three
times this woman interacted with the Lord. She approached that well. He's
sitting on it. And she said, why are you even talking to me?
You're going to get us both in trouble. This is what I know.
She said, I know some things. That's what she's getting at.
First interaction they had. I know the rules. I know man's
rules. You're a Jew. I'm a Samaritan.
We can't talk. You can get us both in hot water. And she said,
secondly, you can't draw from this well. Have you seen this
well? It's too deep. You ain't got
the right tools to draw from this well. That's mocking it. That's Captain Obvious. You can't
reach down that far. You ain't got a rope. You ain't
got a bucket. That's man's logic. And then
lastly, her third interaction, she said, I'm religious. I'm
religious. I've been going to church all
my life. I worship God in these mountains. My parents did, my
great-grandparents did, my great-great-granddaddy did. We know God. Just a different
God than you do. We're all getting there the same
way. It's religion, isn't it? Justifying. She said, what are
you talking about? How can this be? I know religion.
I have no idea what you're talking about. Three times, three times
in the very presence of the triune God in a body, She gave a rebuke,
she gave a rebuttal, and she gave her religion. I know some
stuff. How could this be? This ain't
possible. You kidding me? Well, I'm religious. She was perfectly fallen. Isn't
that three? Three times. How many times did
Peter deny the Lord? She was perfectly fallen. She
was perfectly unable to know God. She was perfectly unable
to worship Him. And she was perfectly and completely
unable to perceive Him, to understand Him, and to figure Him out. Then the Lord revealed Himself
to her. She had life. How many times,
if I had to deal with this woman, how many times would I make it?
I'll make it through the first one. I'm a pretty good fella. I'm good on the inside. I can
at least go through two rebukes and rebuttals and not listen
to what I have to say. I thought all morning Moses was
the meekest man that ever lived. I know I ain't. I pray the Lord
make me meek, long-suffering, and patient because he was. I
want to be like him. Three times she did this, and
then the Lord revealed Himself to her. Then she had life. And
then she left her water pot, and she went and told people
about Him. The same thing happened over in John 3, didn't it? That's
what we read this morning, Nicodemus. Nicodemus. There's three big
differences, or not three, there's a lot of big differences between
Nicodemus and this woman, but there's some similarities too.
Nicodemus was a man. She's a woman. That ain't as
big a deal in our day, because we've evolved and we're more
morally, have a greater moral appetite in our society or whatever.
Back then, this meant something. Not too long ago in this country,
women couldn't vote, they couldn't own land, couldn't do a lot of
things, could they? There was a difference. Nicodemus was a
man. She was a woman. God saved both of them. He had
a name. Nicodemus. That meant victorious
among the people. He's a winner. Good strong name. Victorious.
You're going to win above people. You're going to climb to the
top of them. They're going to be your mountain. You're going
to step on every one of their heads. She didn't have a name. Nowhere
in the scriptures is her name recorded. Woman at the well.
That lady with five husbands. Living with somebody else. He
was a pure stock. He was a Jew. Oh man, he was
of a tribe. I don't know which one. I didn't
look that up. He had a tribe though. He was
a good stock. He was circumcised the 8th day.
She was a Samaritan. A half Jew, a half Gentile, a
dog. That's worse than just a Gentile
dog. Horrible. He was well educated. Likely
this woman was not. He'd been to the finest schools.
He'd been to seminary. He was a theologian. He knew
lots of big things. Knew the scriptures. She didn't.
She knew about a mountain her mom and daddy went to. He was
well-to-do. She was poor. He had understudies. He had apprentices, people on
internships, and maids to go get his water for him. He didn't
have to go no where. She'd go get her own water. He
came to Christ looking for Him. He sought Him out at night, but
He came, didn't He? He comes seeking the Lord. He
comes seeking for mercy. No, He came to debate theological
doctrine and issues. Christ brought Him in providence.
The Lord brought Him to Him. His feet were used with Him.
She wanted left alone. She just showed up to get a bucket
of water to get through the day. She wasn't seeking the Lord.
The Lord Jesus came to her. She was seeking a pot of water,
that's what she was seeking. But he was seeking her, and he
was found by one that sought him not. Nicodemus was a very
high, powerful man in religion, and he wanted the people to see
him in the streets. See my outfits? I wear this on
purpose. He had a little collar, robe,
whatever it was. He wanted people to see where
he sat in the tabernacle. When he went to church on Sunday,
he had high seats. When he prayed, he prayed out loud. He rolled
his R's or whatever, made himself sound fancy. He had strict morals. He did, didn't he? Oh, I can't
read that. I can't look at that. I can't watch that movie. I can't
go over here. I can't eat this. Outwardly, he could say with
solemn tarsus, concerning the law, I'm blameless. We couldn't
hold nothing to him. On an outward appearance, we couldn't get him
on nothing. This woman didn't have too many morals, did she?
She went to get her water at noon because she didn't want
anybody to see her. She'd been married five times and was living
out of wedlock with the colonel. Nicodemus was told something
he could not do. Nicodemus, you must be born again.
You can't do that, can you? The Lord's gotta do it. This
woman was told something she could do. Give me a drink of
water. She never did, did she? She didn't
even get herself a drink of water. She dropped that washpot, took
off. She went up there to get something to drink, and then
she left without it. Something was more important. The need
was the same. There's a whole lot of differences
between these two, but the need was the same. Three times, Nicodemus,
in the presence of the Almighty God, right in front of him, he
told what he thought. He was sarcastic, and he mocked
the Lord. How can a man be born again?
And then he asked, how can these things be? I'm learned. That's
what the Lord responded with, too. Ain't you a ruler in Israel?
He said, I've read these scriptures. I know my Bible. My God says
this. My Bible says this. God taught him something, didn't
He? Three times this woman came to the Lord. Here's this high
and lifted up man, proud, rich fellow, well-educated, theologian,
and here's nothing. She came to him mildly different
on the outside, but the inside wasn't no different, was it?
Her status in life might have been a whole lot different, but
the inside wasn't no different. She came prideful and self-righteous. She told the Lord what she thought
and what she knew. I know the rules. You can't talk to me.
What are you doing? And then she was sarcastic and
mocked him. How are you going to get water
out of that well? That's too deep. You ain't got no tools.
How are you going to get a baby out of somebody that's already
been born? Same thing, isn't it? How a man be born again?
Enter his mother's womb a second time? How are you going to get
water out of that well? You got a rope? You got a bucket in your pocket? Ain't no difference. And then
she fell on her religion. Nick Davis said, how could this
be? How could these things be? And she said, well, I worship
in the mountains. It's all the same. My parents were good Christians. They're good moral people. It's
the exact same. Perfectly fallen before a holy
God. Both of them. With no difference.
And Christ saved both of them. What hope do I have? God saved
both of them. He saved both. They're sinners.
They were His, given to Him before the foundation of the world.
And He came to seek and to save the lost. Call His name Jesus,
for He shall save His people. Nobody goes on from their sins.
That's what we are. Ain't nothing but sin. That's
who He came to save. When it was clear and plain that they
both were perfectly, helplessly, hopeless, unable, God gave them
life. And when there's new life given,
there's faith to believe Christ, to believe His Word, to believe
what He says about mankind, to believe he's able to save to
the uttermost and to call on him for mercy. Lord, you have
saved me. Lord, save me today and keep
saving me until you take me home, until that final day. He gives
the faith to do that. That new heart, that new cup
that's inside of him that runs over, that's what the Lord puts
in there. Gives it life, gives it faith,
gives it the ability to cry out for mercy, to believe on the
Lord, love him, love his brethren. Martin Luther wrote, God creates
out of nothing. That's why he made this world,
this whole universe, wasn't it? Therefore, until a man is nothing,
God will make nothing out of him. Until we're brought down to nothing. I was wounded. A man was either
wounded in the garden or he died in the garden. Well, I need reading
glasses. I do have some trouble with my
eyes. You're either blind or you see. Tell a man he's made
nothing. God will make nothing out of
him. Look down in verse 10. Here's what he does. John 4 verse
10. Jesus said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God. The
gift of God. What's the gift of God? Eternal
life. You know what eternal life was. Not a parachute to get you
out of hell. A dog knows not to jump on something
that hurts. If you knew the gift of God,
eternal life, that's a life you've always had. A life that you're
alive with right now. And a life you always keep. He'll
keep it. Thou knowest the gift of God.
And who it is that saith to thee, give me drink. He is our gift. He is our life. Thou wouldest
have asked of him If the Lord gave somebody the heart to know
what eternal life is, what His gift of faith, His gift of life,
Christ is, what He sent His Son, His only begotten Son, to this
world to bleed, to die, to be mocked, to have His beard plucked
out, to wear a crown of thorns, be pierced in His side, open
not His mouth to be accepted of God. If we knew who He was,
we'd ask Him. to empower. That new man sees
who He is. Well, say, Lord, give me mercy. Lord, come to us. Lord, teach us. Lord, be with
us. Lord, keep us. And it says there, and He would
have given thee living water. Don't chew that bone too fast.
Come to Him. He will. He would. That's marvelous. Do we marvel
or do we sleep on all sluggard?" That's marvelous, isn't it? Look
here at verse 27. And upon this, when He told that
woman, He said, I am. That's who's talking to you.
I am. At that moment, verse 27, and upon this came His disciples
and marveled that He talked with the woman. Yet no man said, What
seekest thou or why talkest thou with her? They didn't ask her
anything. What are you doing here? Why
are you bothering him? And they didn't ask the Lord anything.
Why are you talking to her? That's our carnal mind, isn't
it? Here's a Jew talking to a Samaritan.
Here's a man talking to a woman without a chaperone. Here's a
man talking to a woman that you can tell on the outside. She
didn't look like the good holy ones, did she? That's a street
walker. What's he doing over there with
her? What would somebody think if I was talking to somebody
like that? What are you doing? But they heard him say, I am.
But they rise, they peak that hill. We got some meat. And he
said, I am. She let go of that water pot
and took off running. I know why he's talking to her now.
That's his bride. He saved her a worm just like
me, just like he come to us. That woman left her water pot
and she took off running and told whoever would listen. Look
down at verse 39, here's the result of it. And this wasn't
her, this wasn't her doing. Proverbs speaks, it's good to
be a soul winner. And boy, we've taped that and
we've just bastardized it in our day and age. We've abused
that word and people took and run for the hills with it and
be like, oh, you need to be a soul winner. You ain't. It's good
to be the tool that the Lord uses. That's what it said. Good
to be mouthpiece. That's good office. The Lord
put you there. Be thankful for it. He'll let you see some things.
This woman took off. She told others. It says in verse
39, And many of the Samaritans of that city believed on him
for the saying of the woman. Which testified, he told me all
that I ever did. Because they saw a change in
her, they believed her words. And she said, come church with
me. Come see. They said, you know what, I believe
I'll go hear that man speak. Something's obviously changed.
I can tell. I've known you your whole life. Something's different.
She said, Come here. And I said, You know what? I
think I will. They believed they'd go with her. Verse 40, So when
the Samaritans were come unto Him, they besought Him that He
would tarry with them. And He abode there two days.
They asked, Lord, stay with us. And He stayed. He stayed two
days, didn't He? And many more believed because
of His own word. And said unto the woman, Now
we believe, not because of thy saying, You are the tool we used,
and I'm thankful for you. You are my sister, but it ain't
because of you, for we have heard Him ourselves. God spoke to us. He called us
by name. He called me with an effectual calling. I'm thankful
for the... Henry Mayhem was used to preach the gospel to me, and
I love that man, and I'd fight for him. You ain't gonna talk
bad about him in front of me, but that's just the means the
Lord used. I'm thankful for my Lord. He's a man. The Lord could
have had a tree talked to. Thank My Lord, but I appreciate
the means He used to call me out. It says in verse 42, And
they said unto the woman, Now we believe, not because of thy
saying, for we have heard Him ourselves, and know that this
is indeed the Christ, the Savior of the world. Jew and Gentile,
rich and poor, bond or free, it's Him. We know Him. They didn't say one letter there,
but we understand some doctrine. We got our theology in a row.
They said, we found a person. He spoke to us. They went to
hear and they heard. God spoke to them. He called
them by name. He pierced their hearts and they believed. And
they left their water pots too. We're all different. The Lord
saves through the preaching of the gospel, not a preaching of
a lie. He said so, that's the same. But the word that He uses
to pierce the heart. Sometimes He takes an axe and
sometimes He takes a pen. And He knows just what to do.
It's right. On that day and this day, the
first time and the last time that we breathe on this earth,
He knows just, this great physician knows just how to do it. That's
right. And whenever he does that, we
leave our water pots. She went up there to get something
earthly that she had to keep going after, and keep going after,
and keep going after. It satisfied, but it come right back out of
the body because that were cracked cisterns. A water pot's the heart. She tried to fill it before with
husbands. She had one, then she had two, then three, then four,
then five, and now working on number six. That wasn't working,
was it? It's empty, empty, empty. This
world is vanity. That's what Ecclesiastes was
talking about. Go read Solomon. Vanity, all of it. The capital
P preacher said so. Christ told us plainly and everything
in here is going to perish and it doesn't fulfill anything.
And she left that water pot. She left her thoughts, her opinions,
she left her rebuttals, and she left her religion that could
not save behind. and she went and talked about
a man, the God man. Look at all this form and these
robes and nonsense and went and talked about a man. He did something
for me, I'm going to tell you about him. Nicodemus did the
same thing. Did you know that? Over in John 7, those chiefs,
those captains came, they went to go arrest the Lord and they
reported back, they heard the Lord preach and they didn't get
him. And they come back to these high priests and these Sanhedrins
and these big fancy courts, these theologians. And they said, where
did he go? Why didn't you arrest him? And
they said, we've never heard a man speak like this man. And
they said, are you believing him too? How many people believe
him? They start looking for numbers, don't they? Get rid of him. What can we do? Let's devise
a plan. And Nicodemus saith unto them, he that came to Jesus by
night, be one of them. Same one. He said, doth our law
judge any man before it hear him and know what he doeth? Shouldn't we hear this man out?
The Lord spoke to him. That woman at the well, he saved
her right then. Nicodemus, the Lord spoke to
him. Boy, that took a while, didn't it? It was a couple years
later. Two years later, a year and a
half later. And he said, I want to hear about this. What did
he have to say? He had heard of a man that told
all things. He said, let's hear him. Let's
hear him. And they answered and said to
him, art thou also of Galilee? Ain't you redneck? That's what
they're getting at. Ain't you hillbilly? Search and look. Go read your
Bible, Nicodemus. For out of Galilee arises no
prophet. Nicodemus started to bend down just a little bit to
set that water pot down. He had his water pot. He said,
well, let's hear him out. He'd been about halfway. He was
almost all the way down that manna, wasn't he? But when the
pride was gone, when the Lord kept working His heart, we don't
know how that happened. He left us water pot. Turn over to John
19. John 19 verse 38. This is after our Lord cried out, I thirst.
And they gave him a sponge with vinegar. And he cried out, it's
finished. He gave up the ghost. And they
came by and they pierced his side and blood and water came
out of it. And they didn't break his legs, because the scripture
said no bone will be broken. But we saw the blood, that's
what was required of God. And we saw the water, we needed
cleansing. Right after he was on that tree,
they brought him down and they were going to bury him because
they couldn't break their holy day. Our Sabbath hung on a cross and
they didn't want to break the Sabbath. Christ, our Passover
hung on that cross and if it was the Passover, we were going
to get in trouble. They took him down. It's time to get him
in the ground, bury him so we didn't sin. But verse 38 says, And after this, Joseph of Arimathea,
being a disciple of Jesus, he was the Lord's, but secretly,
for fear of the Jews, besought Pilate that he might take away
the body of Jesus. He went to Pilate through the
back door, because he didn't want them trying to tear his body apart.
The Lord's body. And Pilate gave him leave. He
came, therefore, and took the body of Jesus, and there came
also Nicodemus, which at the first, came to Jesus by night. and brought a mixture of myrrh
and aloes and a hundred pound weight. He had myrrh and he had
aloe and he had a hundred pounds of it. You ever got aloe? I always think of aloes in bushes
right here on the corner. It looks like a big ol' aloe
bush. I know it ain't, but I'm sure somebody, an expert, will
tell me what it is, but you got a hundred pounds of it. You gonna
see that. You don't hide that under a napkin. You don't put
that in your coat pocket. He didn't have a little thing of
hand sanitizer. He had a hundred pounds of it. walking through
the middle of the day, and they took the body of Jesus and wound
it in linen clothes with the spices as the manner of the Jews
is to bury. This very one Nicodemus, carried
through town with the body of Christ, a hundred pounds of myrrh
and aloe. This Sanhedrin, this big important
religion. Could you imagine all his co-workers,
all his fellow theologians calling out, you walk out that door Nicodemus
and you ain't coming back in. You'll be lighting candles and
rum. You'll be an altar boy. That told me all you want to
go start pumping gas. Your work here is done. Don't you do it!"
And I bet they was mocking him, making fun of him, throwing things
in his face that he said for 50 years while he was there,
doing anything they could to pick on him. And you know what
he did? He put aloe on one shoulder, butter on the other, and said,
let's go. He left his water pot. Religion was his water pot. Going
to church was his water pot. Wearing fancy robes and talking
real funny in public was his water pot. And he left it. And
he went to the Lord. He went to a person. Went to
put him in a grave. Bind him up. He didn't care. Just as our Lord did not care
to speak to that whoremonger, He didn't care who saw it. He
didn't care what they thought. That was His bride and He was
going to talk to her. Aren't you thankful? Let this
mind be in you. After Peter was converted, He
didn't teach His brethren. He didn't whip His brethren.
He comforted His brethren. And He said, let this mind be
in you. Our great Lord in His condescension, This high proud theologian and
this adulterous woman and every child that God saves, they rejoice
in that. We had a need. He is the one
thing needful. He came to us. He saved us. We're
plumb saved forever. Ain't nobody going to change
it. We're his bride. Ain't nobody messing with her. He's going
to keep us forever. We're going to be conformed to
his image. One day this old water pot, the cistern that I live
in, is going to be ground back up to dirt. And I'll be with
him. I'll be with him. I'll be like him. And we rejoiced
over that. Nicodemus rejoiced. That woman
at the well rejoiced. And every one of his children
rejoiced. Paul wrote to the church at Philippi, he said, for we
are the circumcision which do worship God in the spirit. We
have a spirit now. We have life. And rejoice in
Jesus Christ. We don't rejoice in nothing else.
We're thankful to Him for all we have, but we rejoice in Him,
in a person, and have no confidence in the flesh. Well, I think, knock it off. You've got no confidence
in the flesh. We just bow. Rejoice in Him. Nicodemus left his water pot
of titles and religion and confidence in the flesh. That woman left
her water pot of privacy, religion, understanding. And every child
of God on this earth leaves their water pot. All those things before,
it ain't worth nothing. Until we leave this body of death.
Every one of us. Someone sent me a thing this
morning. And they said, you think this is true? And it was scriptures
about what happens when a person dies. I said, well, is that the
Lord's word? And they said, yeah. I said, yes, I think it's true.
I may not be able to explain it, but I can tell you right
now it's true. I know that. I believe what I don't understand,
but that's true. The second this body of death is over, we're
already alive. If we have eternal life, you
have it right now. And this just goes away. It's like taking off an old coat.
When this world's gone, we'll be with Him. And we'll rejoice
in Spirit. Because we'll be with God who's
in Spirit. We'll be right there face to face with Him at that
marriage supper. What a thought that'll be. Poor, wretched, worthless,
nothing but worms. Couldn't come to Him. Wouldn't
come to Him. He came to us and He saved us. And boy, we're thankful. And we'll spend eternity praising
Him. Giving Him all the glory for it, won't we? Rejoicing in
Him. Not ourselves in Him. That'll be something. The Lord saves rich and poor.
He saves Jew and Gentile, male and female. That was a big issue
back in the day. Black and white. My pastor went through that issue.
The Lord saves black people and white people. In the 1860s, He
saves slaves and He saves masters. In the 70s, He saves Vietnamese
and He saves Americans. Early 2000s. The Lord saves Democrats
and he saves Republicans. What about this week? The Lord
saves vaccinated people and he saves unvaccinated people. It
took the power of God for me to say that. That'll step on some toes, won't
it? Oh, if he'd show us we had centers. If he'd show us we had
need. He would give. He'd give you
water. Lord, I'm thirsty. Here's Mark
and that's something. Thank you.